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Pashtunistan (Persian: پشتونستان) or Pakhtunistan (Persian: پختونستان), is what many Pashtun nationalists call the Pashtun-dominated areas of Pakistan. The Pashtuns in Afghanistan are the largest ethnic group in the country and are concentrated in the south and east, but nationalists have often included all of the western part of Pakistan as part of Pashtunistan. The Pakistani part of Pashtunistan comprises an area that runs from Chitral in the north (where Pashtuns are a minority, with Khowar people being the majority) to Sibi in the southwest and intentionally includes the ethnically mixed region of Balochistan. The Pashtun majority areas in western Pakistan include the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the northern portion of Balochistan. The main language spoken in the Pashtunistan region is Pashto, but substantial numbers of Afghan Persian-speakers can also be found throughout the Pashtun regions of western Pakistan where many Afghan refugees have established permanent roots. Thus, Pashtunistan can be defined in various ways depending upon the point of view of the political group involved.
Pakistan has more than double the number of Pashtuns compared to Afghanistan. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, over 4 million refugees, mostly Pashtuns, migrated to Pakistan, but they are not included in the official count of Pashtuns in Pakistan as they are not Pakistani citizens. Most of them have permanently settled in Pakistan due to continuing violence and instability in Afghanistan. The Pakistan's Pashtuns have integrated into Pakistan and have substantial representation in Pakistan armed forces, parliament, political parties, business and civil services. The Pakistani Balochs are also bitterly opposed to their inclusion in Pashtunistan movement and they support their own nationalist Baloch movement.
Pashtunistan in History
The area was called Pukhtunkhwa (Pukhtun Quarter, according to Bellew) or Paktika (according to Herodotus) and mentioned by many Pushto poets in their verses as Pakhtunkhwa since 11th century.
In fact the famous couplet of Ahmad Shah Abdali speaks of the association the people have with the region,
Da Dili takht herauma cheh rayad krhm, Zma da khkule Pukhtunkhwa da ghre saroona.
Translation: "I forget the throne of Delhi when I recall, The mountain peaks of my beautiful Pukhtunkhwa."
Despite sharing a common language and believing in a common ancestry, Pashtuns have rarely been united and did not achieve unity until the 18th century CE. Another early Pashtun nationalist was the Pashtun "warrior-poet" Khushal Khan Khattak who was imprisoned by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for trying to incite the Pashtuns to rebel against the rule of the Mughals. The first Afghan empire (see Durrani Empire) of Ahmad Shah Durrani, which was established in 1747 and encompassed the Pashtun areas, united the Pashtuns until conflicts with the encroaching British Empire and the Ranjit Singh's Sikh Kingdom led to the eventual dismemberment of the old Durrani Empire.
Following the decline of the Durrani Empire, the Pashtun domains began to shrink as they lost control of the regions now in Pakistan to the Sikhs, Balochis, Persians, and ultimately the British. The British arrived in the middle of the 19th century and the Pashtunistan region became an area of importance for both the British and the Russians. The Anglo-Afghan wars were fought as part of the overall imperialistic Great Game that was waged between the Russian Empire and the British, and the Afghans found their territories greatly diminished as a result of border adjustments made as a result of British peace terms. During the reign of the Afghan "Iron" Amir Abdur Rahman, in the late 19th century CE, the Afghans reluctantly gave up nearly half of the Pashtun territories to the British. It is possible that Abdur Rahman viewed the so-called Durand Line as a temporary arrangement rather than a permanent settlement and is known to have vocally despised the agreement and bitterly resented the British for it. Nonetheless, the British finalized the agreement as part of their permanent political border with Afghanistan.
In 1905, the North-West Frontier Province was created and roughly corresponded to Pashtun majority regions within the British domain and seemed to indicate the permanence of the border from the British point of view. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas was created to further placate the Pashtun tribesmen who never fully accepted British rule and were prone to rebellions, while Peshawar was directly administered as part of a British protectorate state with semi-autonomy.
During World War I, the Afghan government was contacted by the Ottoman Empire to join the Central Allies on behalf of the Caliph in a Jihad; some revolutionaries and Afghan leaders including a brother of the Amir named Nasrullah Khan were in favour of the delegation and wanted the Amir declare Jihad.
That delegation included Kazim Bey, a Turk minister and special envoy of the last Sultan of Turkish Usmania dynasty - Mohammad V (known as Mohammad Khamis).
Kazim Bey carried a farman from the Khalifa in Persian. It was addressed to “the residents of Pathanistan.” It said that when the British were defeated, "His Majesty the Khalifa, in agreement with allied States, will acquire guarantee for independence of the united state of Pathanistan and will provide every kind of assistance to it. Thereafter, I will not allow any interference in the country of Pathanistan." (Ahmad Chagharzai; 1989; PP: 138-139). However the efforts failed and the Afghan Amir Habibullah Khan maintained Afghanistan's neutrality throughout World War I (for more information see ).
The Khudai Khidmatgar were a non-violent group and Ghaffar Khan openly claimed to have been inspired by Gandhi. While the Red Shirts were willing to work with the Indian National Congress, some Pashtuns desired independence from both India and the newly created state of Pakistan following the departure of the British. When the decision for partition was announced, it included the condition of a referendum being held in the North West Frontier Province because it was ruled by the Khudai Khidmatgar backed Congress government of Dr. Khan Sahib. On 21st June 1947, Khudai Khidmatgar leaders met under the presidency of Amir Mohammad Khan at Bannu as realisation that the referendum was inevitable the participants declared that Pukhtuns did not accept India or Pakistan and announced a boycott of the referendum. The voters chose Pakistan by a margin of 9 to 1 in 1947. A loya jirga in the Tribal Areas garnered a similar result as most preferred to become part of Pakistan. Subsequent to indepenence and Pakistan's creation in August 1947 the Khudai Khidmatgar leaders reconvened at Sardaryab on 3 and 4 September 1947 and passed a resolution that accepted Pakistan's creation and they would leave in Pakistan as its bona fide citizens and would refrain from making any sort of disturbance and difficulty for the new state.
Despite some improvement provincially the Pashtunistan issue was inherited by the new state of Pakistan and would cause diplomatic problems with Afghanistan. Afghanistan was the only country in the world that voted against Pakistan's inclusion in the U.N. Assembly. While both countries showed a willingness to discuss the Durand Line, a brief period of calm was shattered in 1949 following a tribal uprising supported by Afghanistan on the Pakistani side of the border. The Afghanistan military allegedly bombed a Pashtun village in Pakistan during the conflict as to make Pakistan look bad and this led to deteriorating relations between the two countries. The Afghan government responded to the incident with a declaration that it found the Durand Line agreement of 1893 to be null and void and this prompted some measure of hostile relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. However there was a clear divide within the Afghan government on how to handle the issue. On June 13, 1948, Shah Wali Khan, the Afghan envoy to Pakistan, at a party in his honor by the Aligarh Old Boys' Association, declared: "Our King has already stated, and I, as the representative of Afghanistan, declare that Afghanistan has no claims on frontier territory, and even if there were any, they have been given up in favor of Pakistan. Anything contrary to this which may have appeared in the Press in the past or may appear in the future should not be given credence at all and should be considered just a canard."
Around the same time, the official Kabul daily, Anis, supported by Kabul Radio, demanded that the territory between the Durand Line and the Indus River should be amalgamated with Afghanistan. Again a statement supporting the views expressed by his Ambassador was soon issued by the Counselor of the Afghan Embassy in Karachi. This led to an unusual situation in which Kabul Radio challenged the authority of the Afghan envoy to speak for his own government.
In July 1949, the Afghan Parliament declared that "it does not recognize the imaginary Durand or any similar Line." Kabul Radio and the Afghan Press intensified their propaganda, inciting the tribesmen living on the Pakistan side of the Durand Line to revolt in the name of 'Pakhtoonistan'.
Afghan backed insurgents crossed the Durand Line from Afghanistan to openly combat the Pakistani military between 1950 to 1955 and diplomatic relations were briefly severed during this tense period. Relations were resumed in 1951, but the issue remained unresolved. Relations briefly improved in the mid-1950's after an abortive attempt to agree to a confederation between the two countries. The effort allegedly collapsed because President Iskander Mirza rejected the idea of disbanding the One Unit scheme. Subsequently problems further aggravated because of the Pakistani crackdown on the Pashtun nationalist Khudai Khidmatgar movement. A constant propaganda war was waged between the two governments while there was evidence to suggest that the Afghan government intentionally or unintentionally was encouraging seccesionist activies in Pakistan, besides Afghanistan many Congress party leaders felt a sense of obligation to their former compatriots in the Khudai Khidmatgar movement.
As the Cold War progressed, Pakistan formally joined the Baghdad pact and CENTO because of its underlying security needs in relation to larger India. The Soviets had established closer ties to Afghanistan in 1955 and during a state visit by Soviet Premier Nikolay A. Bulganin, the USSR declared that it supported the right to self-determination of Pashtunistan.
However despite the controversy, Afghanistan and Pashtun nationalists did not exploit Pakistan's vulnerability during the nation's 1965 and 1971 wars with India.
In the 1970's, the roles between Pakistan and Afghanistan reversed despite the Pakistan government's fresh crackdown on the Baloch and Pashtun Nationalist's by the government of Zulfiqar Bhutto. The Pakistan government decided to retaliate against the Afghan governments pakhtunistan policy by supporting Islamist opponents of the Afghan government including future Mujahidin leaders Gulbadin Hekmatyar and Ahmed Shah Masood. This operation was remarkably successful and by 1977 the Afghan government of Sardar Daud was willing to settle all outstanding issues in exchange for a lifting of the ban on the National Awami Party and a commitment towards provincial autonomy for pashtuns.
The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and civil war in Afghanistan sidelined the issue which remains a cause championed by small pockets of Pashtun nationalists in Afghanistan, but with diminished support.
Social issues and concepts surrounding Pashtunistan
Prominent 20th century proponents of the Pashtunistan cause have included the late Khan Wali Khan and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Ghaffar Khan stated in the Pakistan Constituent Assembly in 1948 that he simply wanted "the renaming of his province as Pakhtoonistan. Like Sindh, Punjab, etc." Another name mentioned is Afghania whereas the 'A' in Choudhary Rahmat Ali Khan's theory stands for Pakistan's second letter in the Now or Never Pamplet. However this name has faield to capture political support of any group in the province.
Khan Abdul Wali Khan, who founded his own faction of the National Awami Party , is remembered for having eloquently replied to a Pakistani critic of the Pashtunistan cause, who asked him if he considered himself a Pakistani Muslim first or a Pashtun, by stating that: "I have been a Pashtun for six thousand years, a Muslim for thirteen hundred years, and a Pakistani for twenty-five." This has become an oft repeated sentence by Pashtun nationalists and even other Nationalist leaders in Pakistan.
While some Pashtun intellectuals continue to champion the Pashtunistan cause, independent Pashtun tribes have expressed an identity that is often relegated to their tribal affiliation rather than nationality in the modern sense or even overall ethnic solidarity with other Pashtuns. In addition, Pashtuns in Afghanistan have undergone considerable "Persianization" as part of a country where Persian remains an important universal language, while in Pakistan many Pashtuns have become bilingual in the national language of Pakistan's schools, Urdu. The divide between Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns was bridged during the Soviet invasion and subsequent civil wars in Afghanistan as millions of Afghan refugees moved to Pakistan's border region. This served to re-establish the cultural ties, but majority of Pashtuns in Pakistan looked upon these Afghans as they though they were leeching off the Pakistani Pashtun resources who were considerably better off then their Afghani counterparts. Pashtuns. Given the current rebuilding status of Afghanistan and increasing Pashtun demographics and power within Pakistan itself, the Pashtunistan issue has become dormant in recent years.
Pashtuns practice Pashtunwali, the indigenous culture of the Pashtuns, and this pre-Islamic identity remains significant for many Pashtuns and is one of the factors that have kept the Pashtunistan issue alive. Although the Pashtuns are separated by the Durand Line between Pakistan and Afghanistan, many Pashtuns, especially tribesmen from the FATA area, tend to ignore the border and cross back and forth with relative disregard.
Variations of the Pashtunistan claim
There are several different types of claims with regard to the Pashtunistan issue, they sometimes overlap but can be distinctively defined:
Afghanistan's claim
Afghanistan makes its core claim on the Pashtun areas on the grounds that Afghanistan is the original home of all Pashtuns. According to historic sources Pukhtun/Afghan tribes did not appear in Peshawar Valley until after 800 AD (Tarikh-e-Farishtah; H.G. Raverty Notes on Afghanistan; Peshawar District Gazetteer 1897-98). As such the original Pashtun tribes migrated from Southern Afghanistan and all Pashtuns acknowledge their origin from that region.
The Afghan governments claim can be based on two different concepts
- One is the claim aiming for the restoration of the Afghan Empire as formed by Ahmad Shah Abdali as it was prior to the capture of certain areas by Ranjit Singh in the early 19th century. This swathe of territory includes Kashmir, much of Pakistani Punjab (upto Jhelum river) in particular Multan and the Pashtun areas of Balochistan especially Quetta. This claim while not formally declared is often mentioned by Afghans. The territory in question also stakes claim to Balochistan which was not formally a part of the Afghan Empire but did however did pay tribute to it during the time of Ahmad Shah Abdali.
- The Second claim is based on purely Pashtun inhabited territory which includes the restoration of NWFP, FATA and the Pashtun belt of Balochistan. This overlaps with the first claim as some proponents also include Balochistan in this claim. This claim has some legal basis as the Afghan government cites three International documents as basis for it, one of which is the limited validity of the Durand Line agreement signed between the British Empire and the Afghan government. The Durand border agreement demarcated the area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was originally intended to extend for a period of 100 years only.
The agreements cited by the Afghan government as proof of their claim over the Pashtun tribes are: a) Article 11 of the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1921 which states: the two contracting parties, being mutually satisfied themselves each regarding the goodwill of the other and especially regarding their benevolent intentions towards the tribes residing close to their respective boundaries, hereby undertake to inform each other of any future military operations which may appear necessary for the maintenance of order among the Frontier tribes residing within their respective spheres before the commencement of such operations. b) Supplementary letter to the Anglo-Afghan treaty of 1921: As the conditions of the Frontier tribes of the two governments are of interest to the Government of Afghanistan. I inform you that the British government entertains feelings of goodwill towards all the Frontier tribes and has every intention of treating them generously, provided they abstain from outrages against the people of India (Caroe 1981).
Advocates of Independent Pashtunistan
Some Pashtun Nationalists believe the Pashtun people are within their rights to form their own State. They believe that either NWFP and FATA on its own or NWFP, along with FATA or the Pashtun belt of Pakistan, NWFP, Balochistan and FATA should be granted independence from Pakistan forming a new State possibly separate from Pakistan called Pashtunistan/Pakhtunistan. They base this on the claim that the 1947 referendum was illegitimate because (i) The option of independence or joining Afghanistan was not given. (ii) The legitimacy of it is doubtful as it was not based on adult franchise but of a limited electoral college of approximately half a million and still polled barely 51% (iii) The NWFP provincial Assembly in 1947 was the only provincial Assembly deprived of the right to decide which choice it would have preferred. As such the decision to join Pakistan was illegal.
Advocates of Pashtunistan within Pakistan & the renaming NWFP Pakhtunkhwa
Pashtun nationalism in the form of the previous theories is quite weak at present, the Pashtun presence within Pakistan's ruling establishment is quite significant, they are represented in the Armed forces, civil service, political system and in business both nationally and provincially. Resentment at both perceived and real discrimination in the form of provincial rights and the failure of the federal government to develop the province; has manifested itself in the form of a supporters Pashtun province within Pakistan or at the very least the renaming of NWFP as Pashtunkhwa/Pakhtunkhwa (translates as Pashtun corner) or Pashtunistan. Begum Nasim Wali (the wife of Wali Khan) declared in an interview: "I want an identity.. I want the name to change so that Pathans may be identified on the map of Pakistan... the 3000 year old name of this area: the name used by Ahmed Shah Abdali who said he forgot everything including the throne of Delhi but not Pakthunkhwa".
In fact the renaming issue is an emotive one which often crosses party lines. While not all supporters of a renaming agree on the name Pakhtunkhwa, some prefer Pashtunistan/Pakhtunistan, still others prefer the name ‘’Abasin’’, or ‘’Afghania’’, which they base on the word A in Pakistan which as explained by the man who named Pakistan Chaudhri Rehmat Ali in his book, Pakistan: The Fatherland of Pak Nation (Ali 1940) "North West Frontier Province - is semantically non-descript and socially wrongful. It is non-descript because it merely indicates their geographical situation as a province of old 'British India' . It is wrongful because it suppresses the social entity of these people. In fact, it suppresses that entity so completely that when composing the name 'Pakistan' for our homelands, I had to call the North West Frontier Province the Afghan Province."
The broad based belief in NWFP that the Pashtuns get an unfair deal from the Pakistani government which is based on the failure to honor Hydro royalty agreements, refusal to allow the renaming of the province, refusal to grant provincial autonomy, perceived discrimination by other ethnic groups (to be more precise Pashtun Nationalists often target Punjabis) towards Pashtuns, and their language and culture, and the fact that the after the Baloch many of the regions of poverty in Pakistan are in the Pashtun belts.
Criticism of the Pashtunistan concept
Pakistani opponents of the Pashtunistan issue challenge the central tenet of the Afghan argument that Afghanistan is the natural home for Pashtuns. Pakistan's rulers like Field Marshal Ayub Khan believed there was a difference between the Pakhtunistan advocated by Ghaffar Khan and the Pukhtunistan of Afghanistan.
Critics challenge the argument that Pashtuns are discriminated in Pakistan's power matrix. They cite the facts that in fact there are more Pashtuns in Pakistan than in Afghanistan so in fact Pakistan is their natural home. In addition, critics argue Pashtuns in Pakistan, are well represented in Pakistan's power structure, particularly the Army. They have served at all levels of the Federal government, in sports and other fields. They are also well represented as far as in the business community.
According to some estimates there are 29 million Pashtuns in Pakistan while only 8.5 million in Afghanistan. Over 77% of all Pushtuns now live in Pakistan, this includes Pakistani Pashtuns and Afghan Pashtun refugees now permanently settled in Pakistan.
Demographics of the Pashtun population
According to Demographics of Afghanistan, Pashtuns constitute 42% of Afghanistan's population The Afghanistan's 2005 population was 29,928,987. The 42% of total population of Afghanistan, 29,928,987 is 12,570,174.
According to Demographics of Pakistan, Pashtuns constitute over 15.42% of Pakistan's population. The Pakistan's population in 2005 was 162,400,000. The 15.42% of total population of Pakistan, 162,400,000 is 25,042,080.
That clearly proves that Pakistan's Pashtun population is more than double of Afghanistan's Pashtun population, even though the percentage of Afghanistan's Pashtun people are more than double than the percentage of Pakistan's Pashtun population.
There are over 4 million Afghan refugees that have permanently settled in Pakistan but are still added to Afghanistan's population and excluded from Pakistan's population. If we subtract 4 million Afghan Pushtun refugees that have permanently settled in Pakistan from the Afghan Pashtun population and add to Pakistan's Pashtun population then the Afghanistan's Pashtun population will be only 8,570,174 while there will be 29,042,080 Pashtuns in Pakistan. If we subtract 4 million Afghan Pushtun refugees that have permanently settled in Pakistan from Afghanistan's population then we have more Pashtuns living in Pakistan than the total population of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan
- Total Population:29,928,987
- Pashtun Population:12,570,174
Pakistan
- Total Population:162,400,000
- Pashtun Population:25,042,080
Total Pashtun Population: 37,612,254
Persian speakers dominate Afghanistan & Economic argument
Another argument against Pashtuns joining Afghanistan is that the Pashtuns of Afghanistan have in fact little interest in the promotion of Pashtun culture, they cite the widespread usage of Dari and its use as the national language of Afghanistan rather than Pashto. Similarly, an independent Pashtunistan is opposed by Pakistani Pashtuns as it would merge the far better-off NWFP, FATA and Pashtun areas of Balochistan with the economically devastated Afghanistan. In Afghanistan an alliance of Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmens and Hazaras are reluctant to any notion of Pashtunistan as that would further dilute their numbers and political clout within Afghanistan if the areas were re-united with Afghanistan (Buzan and Rizvi 1986).
Durand line agreement has not lapsed
Both the British government after the independence the Pakistan government cite the fact that according international law the Durand line between Pakistan and Afghanistan is still valid and the agreement has not lapsed.
References
- Ahmed, Feroz (1998) Ethnicity and politics in Pakistan. Karachi. Oxford University Press.
- Ahmad,Dr.M.(1989) Pukhtunkhwa Kiyun Nahin by Mubarak Chagharzai; PP: 138-139
- Amin, Tahir (1988) -National Language Movements of Pakistan. Islamabad Institute of Policy Studies.
- Buzan, Barry and Rizvi, Gowher (1986), South Asian Insecurity and the Great Powers, London: Macmillan, p. 73.
- Caroe, Olaf (1983) The Pathans with an Epilogue on Russia. Oxford University Press. page 464,465
See also
- Demographics of Pakistan
- Demographics of Afghanistan
- Durand Line
- Pushtuns
- Pakhtunkhwa
- Faqir of Ipi
- Ahmad Shah Abdali